WILLIAM CAREY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Evangelizing the evangelized?

lessons from the entry of Protestant missions into Ethiopia and
their relationship to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Dan Poenaru
Mentor: Stephen D. Morad
Course 12 Research Paper
June 30, 2015

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The Great Commission, whether in its conventional Mathew 28:19 articulation1 or in
Genesis 12:32, encourages the Church to take the Gospel across the world, to all nations (ethnes).
The geographical destinations, while not clearly identified in Scriptures, are interpreted by most
to be the heathen3 - those places where people who have not heard the Gospel reside. Over the
centuries, these heathen were identified as inhabiting primarily the New World and Africa.
Indeed they were there, by-and-large with a few exceptions such as Etiopia, also referred to
as Abyssinia4. What does a good missionary do when he (or she) arrives in a remote African
country, only to find a Christianized nation there? Does he start his own church or denomination,
not recognizing the validity of the existing church? Or does he try to work alongside the
Christians he meets, building the existing church? If the former, what type of relationships
should he have with the national church? If the latter, how?
These are the challenges presented by the example at hand, the advent of the Protestant
missionaries entrying Ethiopia, primarily during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is the thesis of this
paper that this unique experiment, and in particular the ensuing relationship between the old and
the new churches, provide current-day missionaries with significant lessons in mission strategy
when encountering historical Christian denominations in their mission. We will approach the
subject by first outlining the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, then highlighting its state
towards the turn of the past century. The Protestant missions to Ethiopia will be described next,
focusing on the major waves of the last 2 centuries, with specific reference to their methods and
1 Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the
very end of the age. Mat. 28:19 (NIV)
2 I will make you a blessing 3 I will bless those who bless you, and
whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed
through you. Gen. 12:2-3 (NIV)
3 The term comes from people of the heath, denoting Germanic
people who were traditionally not Christian.
4 Abysinia, a transliteration of habesha, the name historically used for
the peoples in the region, roughly covered Erithrea and the northern part of
contemporary Ethiopia, including primarily the Tigray and Amhara peoples.

4
relationship with the historical host church. This will lead to a brief analysis of the connections
and tensions between the old and new churches, with applications extended to contemporary
mission movements.
Brief history of Christianity in Ethiopia
According to tradition, Christianity was first introduced into Abysinia by two Syrian boys,
Edisius and Frumentius. Accidentally shipwrecked on their voyage to India, they were brought to
the court of Emperor Ella Amida, where through piety, reliability and wisdom they gained
position and trust, enabling Frumentius to encourage the existing Christian merchants in the
kingdom to establish churches (Shaw 1996, 57). When released from the court by young King
Ezana, Frumentius visited patriarch Athanasius of Alexandria asking for help in evangelizing the
country at which the patriarch promptly consecrated Frumentius as bishop and sent him back!
Thus in 350 Frumentius returned, and soon afterwards we have evidence of King Ezanas radical
conversion to Christianity, together with his entourage (Shaw 1996, 57; Marcus 1994, 7). Thus
Ethiopia became one of the first Christian nations, just decades after Constantines conversion in
Rome. Theologically the church followed the Oriental monophysite rite5, rejecting early on
Emperor Constantius IIs attempt to sway it to Arianism and the later Council of Chalcedons
(451) dual (diophysite) nature of Christ6 (Girma 2011, 151). The church grew over the centuries,
5 The Oriental Churches include the Coptic Orthodox Church of
Alexandria, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC), the Eritrean
Orthodox Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, the
Armenian Apostolic Church, and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of
India.
6 Thus monophysites affirm that Christ has only one nature at a time.
This is in contrast to the Council of Chalcedon which defined Christ "as
perfect God and man, consubstantial with the Father and consubstantial with
Man, one soul being in two natures, without division or separation and
without confusion or change. (The Chalcedonian Definition on
earlychurchtexts.com). The Oriental Orthodox churches have identified
themselves more with the miaphysite position (Girma 2011, 155).

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particularly through the strong influence of the nine saints7 in the 5th century, and the later
royal protection by the Ethiopian monarchy which saw itself as descendants of the Davidic line
(Girma 2011, 147)8. Unfortunately, the frequent mass conversions were rather superficial, the
rural priests lacked education, there was an increasing focus on hagiographies9 rather than the
Bible, and the folk religion continued to be practiced all resulting in a weakening of the church
and distortion of its Christ-centered message (Girma 2011, 165; Shaw 1996, 59). After seveal
periods of renewal interspersed with decline, by the early 19th century royal authority had
declined and the Ethiopian church was isolated from the world and riddled with divisions10
(Shaw 1996, 178).
By the end of the 19th century, the EOTC under Kings Menelik II and Yohannes IV
proceeded to (forcefully) (re)conquest Muslim and pagan territories east, south, and south-west
of the core Christian highlands (Dewal 2013, 4), baptizing them with little instruction (Steed
2000, 694). This exacerbated the tensions between the various Ethiopic people groups, a
situation further exploited by the Italian occupants in the late 1930s (Girma 2011, 239).

7 The Nine Saints were Syrian monks probabaly fleeing persecution

from the pro-Chalcedonian Byzantine emperor. They strengthened the church
through Bible translation, church government and liturgy, evangelism, and
founded Ethiopian monasticism (Wotango 2007, 16; Shaw 1996, 59).
8 The basis for this lies in the tradition that Menelik I was the son of
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and he brought the Ark of the Covenant
from Jerusalem to Aksum, thus ushering a translatio imperii, a shift of the
Covenant between God and Israel to God and Ethiopia (Bekele 2011, 147).
9 These lives of the saints (gadlat), promoted particularly by King Zara
Yaqob, diverted the church from a Bible-based catechism to a gadeldependent spirituality (Bekele 2011, 159).
10 The state of ruin of the church was noted by an English traveler who
commented: there is reason to fear that, in a short time, the very name of
Christ may be lost among them (Crummey 1972:12)

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While the early Protestant missionaries may have indeed encountered a weak church in
decline, by the 20th century some winds of change did appear. In the wake of the nationalist
movement initiated by the Emperor Haile Selassie11 after ending the Italian occupation, intense
discussions started between Egyptian and Ethiopian clerics, ultimately leading to the
repatriation of the abunaship12 in 1959 (Sundkler and Steed 2000, 695). Some modernization
efforts at the time included a new translation of the Bible into Amharic and the foundation of the
Haile Selassie University of Addis Ababa, incorporating the Othodox Seminary (Sundkler and
Steed 2000, 695). Despite its sometimes esoteric rituals and ancient practices, the churchs
vitality was seen in intense, prolonged worship, mass pilgrimages to sites like Aksum and
Lalibela13, and numerous accounts of supernatural healings14. The Ethiopian Church of the mid20th century, and thus the church which the main protestant missionary waves encountered, was a
large but very conservative institution numbering 61,000 priests, 12,000 monks, 57,000 deacons,
31,000 debteras (choir leaders) and 827 monasteries (1970 data, Sundkler and Steed 2000, 928).
Non-Orthodox missions to Ethiopia
The earliest recorded missionaries to Ethiopia were probably the Portuguese Jesuits, who
came in the 15th century and lasted until until 1626 (Shaw 1996, 112). Their failed attempt to

11 Haile Selassie means Power of the Trinity another example of

the depth of penetration of the Orthodox faith in the culture and life of the
Ethiopian people. The emperorors other titles were Conquering Lion of
Judah, Elect of God, Descendent of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon.
12 Since the beginning of the EOTC, its leadership had remained for
1,500 years under the Coptic Orthodox Church, which appointed regularly
Coptic (Egyptian) patriarchs.
13 Lalibela was built by its namesake king in the 12th and 13th centuries
as the New Jerusalem, complete with such sites as the Jordan River and
Golgotha.
14 Steed reports the account of a priest, M. Wolde, who had healed
1,190,898 people in fourteen years! (Ghiel and van Luik 1968).

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catholicize Ethiopia15 is probably one of the historical causes for EOTCs prevailing suspicion of
foreign missions into the present day (Girma 2011, 163; Dewel 2013, 3). The next emisary from
Rome, Lazarist Justin de Jacobis, was initially well received because of his humility,
servanthood, and deep identification with Ethiopias faith tradition, at a time when the EOTC had
no abun. Yet his churchs fate was eventually one of severe persecution and destruction at the
hands of Abun Salama (Shaw 1996, 181).
The first Protestant to enter Ethiopia16 was Peter Heyling (1607-1652), a physician and
lawyer whose desire was to rejuvenate the ancient churches of the Orient and infuse them with
new evangelical life (Arn 1978, 35). He attempted to acomplish this through Bible
translation and teaching, but his unique mission paradigm ended prematurely, possibly due to
opposition by the EOTC clergy (Girma 2011, 204). Almost two centuries later, Swiss Samuel
Gobat and German Christian Kgler of the Church Misionary Society (CMS) entered with the
same desire to revitalize the ancient church (Svers 1974, 15). Again, despite their moderate,
pro-Orthodox stance, they were not able to avoid doctrinal conflicts; Kgler died from a hunting
wound while Gobat was forced to leave the country (Girma 2011, 207).
In the second half of the 19th century the Swedish Evangelical Mission (SEM) started its
work in the region, first in Erithrea in the north (in the 1860s-1870s) and then moving down to
Western Ethiopia in the 1880s. The SEMs long-term goal was, again, to invigorate a Renewal
and a Reform within the Orthodox Church (Sundkler and Steed 2000). Initially the work
encountered multiple political, social and physical challenges, but by the beginning of the 20th
century SEM was granted official permission to preach to the Oromo people and spread to
neighbouring parts of Ethiopia. Their persistent renewal work within the EOTC resulted in a
15 It is noteworthy that the Portuguese Catholics convinced 2 Ethiopian
emperors, Za-Dingil and Susenyos, to impose the Latin liturgy and decree,
against much opposition, the reunion with the Roman church. Thus the
Ethiopian exerience with Catholicsm was a forced one (Shaw 1996, 112),
16 While not a Protestant per se, it can arguably be claimed that Abba
Estifanos (ca. 1380-1450) preceded all Protestants. Decades before the
European Reformation, this Ethiopian monk preached the authority of the
Bible alone, rejected the veneration of Mary, the saints and the emperor and
prayers for the dead for which both him and his followers were brutally
persecuted, tortured and killed (Getachew 2006).

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growing number of evangelicals within the Orthodox Church, who in time found themselves in
conflict with the conservative clergy and eventually started in a new denomination the
Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (Place of Jesus)(EECMY)17(Sundkler and Steed
2000, 697).
The significant foreign mission influx of the 20th century was heralded by Dr. Thomas
Lambie of the Presbyterian Mission in 1919, whose Abyssinian Frontiers Mission later joined
SIM and sent its first missionaries to Ethiopia in 1927 (Cotterell 1973, 11). After months of
seeking approvals from government and church officials for their work, they eventually moved
to the south towards the muslim areas, but lost their way and settled in the Wolaita region, where
they started their ministry (Wotango 2007, 19; Cotterell 1973, 22-25). Unlike their predecessors,
SIM missionaries came from a strong pietist background which made a collision with the EOTC
unavoidable (Girma 2011, 212-213). Their stated goal from the onset was church planting, and
this resulted, over several decades, in the Kale Heywet (Word of Life) Church, one of the main
protestant denominations in contemporary Ethiopia.
Protestant mission work was facilitated by a 1944 Ethiopian government decree allowing
foreign Christian missions to be established in the predominently non-Christian open areas
(Steed 2000, 696), followed by the 1955 constitution making the first provision for freedom of
religion (Haustein 2009, 118). This coincided nicely with the forced withdrawal and need for redeployment of the Scandinavian missionaries from Maos China in 1949 thus soon the void
of the open areas was filled with Protestant misisonaries, particularly among the Oromo. Thus
Haile Selassies policy of open and closed areas gave unfortunately rise, in Girmas words,
to a re-definition of Ethiopian Christianity along ethnic lines18 (Girma 2011, 199).
Pentecostalism entered relatively later in Ethiopia, through Finnish (1951) and Swedish
(1959) Pentecostal missionaries. But unlike other Protestant denominations, much of the
pentecostal movement arose indigenously19, in the absence of foreign missionaries, and typically
among students and the urban elite rather than in rural areas (Tibebe 2009, 148-149). Eventually

17 In the words of Girma, the EECMY was the result of failed

missionary policy to reform the EOTC, not of any intention by the Lutheran
missions to launch a native independent evangelical church (Girma 2011,
211).
18 The Kale Heywet Church is active predominantly among the peoples
of the south, the Mekane Yesus Church among the Oromo, and the EOTC
among the northern people (Tigray and Amhara).

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the movements crystallized into several new churches, primarily the Full Gospel Believers
Association (Mulu Wongel church, 1968) (Tibete 2009, 170-172).
While most Ethiopian Protestanism was readily seen as a foreign intrusion, an alternative
view emerged, seeing it rather as a quest for identity. Serge Dewel states:
For those Ethiopian nationalities who do not have a long common history
with the northern highland Amhara culture, Pentecostalism is a Christian
alternative with no liabilities and that allows a cultural emancipation. This
conversion-phenomenon was already observed in southern territories about
[sic] Evangelicalism. (Dewel 2013, 1)
In fact, again in Dewels words, Evangelicalism was an indigenous trend that was ready to
blossom when the evangelical missionaries arrived in southern Ethiopia (Dewel 2013, 3).
Besides that, several other factors eased the introduction and growth of the evangelical faith in
southern Ethiopia. According to Tibebe, these included the strong link between the EOTC and
state, the anti-EOTC Italian propaganda, the new Amharic Bible, the persistent use of geez in
Orthodox liturgy, and the strong desire for reformation within the EOTC itself (Tibebe 2009).
Of interest to Ethiopian Protestanism is the term pente, initially a derisive name applied to
Pentecostals, but through the Derg regime increasingly used to denote all Protestants in Ethiopia.
This, in Haustein and Fantinis view, points to an Ethiopian cultural practice of identity
demarcation (Haustein and Fantini 2013, 157).
Relationship between the Orthodox and the Protestant Church
How should the new missionaries address the existence of a historical church in their
chosen heathen land? The two churches, the Orthodox and the Protestant, differed greatly in
their theology and practice. Key divisive points were the veneration of Mary20 and the meaning
of the Eucharist, but other contentious issues included baptism21, methods of evangelism and the
use of Amharic rather than Geez in worship22 (Fargher 1996, 68-74).
19 This includes the so-called Harar, Nazareth, and Haile Sellassie I
University streams (Tibebe 2009, 154-161).
20 The term Mary haters (tsara Maryam), initially applied to
Christians who did not subscribe to the extreme veenration of Mary, came
increasingly to be applied to Protestants around the turn of the last century
(Fargher 1996, 69).

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In a few instances, especially in the early years, the answer was an attempt at collaboration
and partnership. In the words of Thomas Cochrane, the challenge of Abyssinia is a double one:
to give the Christian message to the non-Christian Abyssinians, and to revive the Abyssinian
church (Fargher 1996, 74). Some evangelical leaders were actual ex-Orthodox priests, and they
often looked for a revived Orthodox model in the new churches23 (Sundkler and Steed 2000,
697). The CMS missionaries accepted the EOTC as a true church and aimed to work within it to
purify it of corruptions of doctrine and practice (Shaw 1996, 179). A century later, the Anglican
Bible Churchmens Missionary Society was committed to work with and for the Orthodox

21 In a vivid parallel, Protestants were not only called Mary haters

but also matab breakers, refering to the baptismal cord which every
Orthodox Christian wore. The accusation carried nationalistic overtones, as
breaking the cord broke the national unity (Fargher 1996, 70).
22 Interestingly the monophysite position of the EOTC did not become
a serious cause of contention, most likely because the EOTC itself did not
seem to be concerned with it. In the words of Fargher, Had the whole
doctrinal issue of monophystism never been raised by outsiders, the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church would probably never have known that it was
monophysite (Fargher 1996, 64).
23 One such example was Qes Badima Yalew, the pastor of the
founding church of the Mekane Yesus denomination, who, in Johnny Bakkes
words, was particularly on the alert against moving the evangelical
movement too far from the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition (Bakke 1987, 116).

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Church24, and so was the Swedish Evangelical Mission (Fosterlandstiftelsen) at Nedjo25
(Sundkler and Steed 2000, 697). Indeed prior to 1927 it appears that most mission societies had a
stated policy of not establishing new (non-Orthodox) churches (Fargher 1996, xii). As for SIM, it
is worth noting that although they decided from the onset to plant their own churches, their initial
goal was to go to the south finding out where the densest areas of population are, where
Mohammedan (sic) advance is most threatening, where slave raiding is most prevalent and where
the people live who are most receptive to the gospel message (Cotterell 1973, 18)26.
Most pente missionaries however have had a widely divergent view concerning the EOTC,
generally entailing hostile judgments about the spiritual condition of of the country (Crummey
1972, 5). This was combined with the simplistic view that contemporary EOTC evangelists did
not preach the gospel as it ought to be (Wotango 2007, 21) thus evangelizing Orthodox
Christians became fully justified.
The response of the EOTC to the Protestant misisonaries was, predictably, overwhelmingly
negative. This attitude was likely based on long-held suspicions of disruptive foreign elements in
Ethiopia, particularly the memory of the failed attempt of Portuguese Catholics to convert their
country in the 17th century (vide supra). Tellingly, Dewell describes the ingrained image of a
Christian glacis of the Ethiopian Christian highlands surrounded by an ocean of unbelief and
threat (Gascon 2006). Not surprisingly therefore, when SIM missionaries were asked to present
their faith statement in front of the EOTC, they were found unsatisfactory and required to teach
various Orthodox tenets incompatible with Protestant doctrine (Wotango 2007, 18-19). Similarly,
24 The groups leader in Ethiopia, Alfred Buxton, stated in 1934: We
desire that all people of Ethiopia should be members of the Orthodox Church.
Therefore it is our earnest wish to help this same Orthodox Church with the
provision of Scriptures. (Sundkler and Steed 2000, 697).
25 Rev. Martin Nordfeldt mission at Nedjo accepted the baptism rite if
the Orthodox Church, and his followers worshiped each Sunday both at a
local Orthodox Church and at an evangelical church.
26 This mission guideline was however broken just a few years later,
when in 1934 they followed a government invitation to open a mission
station in the north in Lalibela, the very centre of Orthodox worship (Cotterell
1973, 74-75).

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CMS missionaries attempt to work with the EOTC were eventually turned down, concluding
that Protestanism was a religious revolution more radical and more offensive than the EOTC
could accept (Hastings 1994, 225). How unfortunate indeed, that a millenial church in great need
of renewal prefered to entrench itself even deeper into its conservative position rather than use
the opportunity to bring itself in line with the contemporary world27
Moreover, it is important to recognize that, despite some initial theological questioning of
foreign missionaries by the EOTC28, the Churchs orientation was national rather than doctrinal.
adherents of the new churches movement were considered to be disloyal to their national
heritage; they were never accused of heresy (Fargher 1996, 75).
Unfortunately the position of the EOTC was not limited to refusal to cooperate direct
opposition to the Protestant work was encountered from the onset. Thus the SIM missionaries
found themselves persistently ordered out of their various sites (Cotterell 1973, 28-36). The
opposition to them heightened when they moved form the south to the north, the stronghold of
the EOTC (Cotterell 1973, 78). Over the ensuing decades, persecution took the form of
emprisonment, evictions, house burnings, beatings, and even murders (Cotterell 1973, 147-154;
Girma 2011, 216). It came often from the EOTC, but also from the semi-pagan rulers in the
south, and from the Italian occupants in the 1930s-40s. Not surprisingly, this persecution only
strengthened the evangelical church.
Despite these visible signs of tension, during the early years of 1927-1944 there were
relativey few open conflicts between the two churches. Fargher aptly summarizes their position
vis--vis each other: In many areas the theological distance between them was so great that that
peaceful co-existence depended on them staying far away form one another. Perhaps they simply
ignored each other (Fargher 1996, 74).
Ultimately, the legitimacy of Protestanism in Ethiopia hangs on the
answer to the question, in Girmas words, of whether its birth was a
paradigm shift, even a clash of paradigms, or a proselytism that went wrong
by evangelizing the evangelized (Girma 2011, 143). Despite strong
assertions from within the EOTC to the latter, the dual realities of the
27 Refering to the EOTC, Fargher aptly concludes: Its resistance to
change, rather than doctrine, was the biggest hurdle to be overcome by
those who attempted to cooperate with the Church (Fargher 1996:75).
28 Key among these questionings was the Holy Episcopal Synod which
examined the SIM missionaries in 1927 (Fargher 1996, 74-78).

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superficial, token conversions to Christianity outside the Orthodox core and
the emergence of authentic, non-expatriate led Ethiopian charismatic
evangelicalism lead us to support the former.

Applications for contemporary missions

What are the lessons which we can glean from the fascinating historical and missiological
events described so far in this essay? Upon careful investigaton, it appears that the two great
church traditions, the Orthodox and the Protestant, come in contact with each other on the
Ethiopian soil, moved for a little while togetehr, then, like celestial bodies pursuing their pre-set
orbits, distanced themselves permanently from one another. This summative observation begs
two questions: why were their orbits so different, and, would they meet again?
In response to the first question, the current study highlights a multitude of factors on each
side. The EOTCs stance was initially based on its non-negotiable theological distinctives
Marianism, baptism, ecclesiology, and the like. These may well have separated it in the early
days, as in the 1927 Episcopal Synod but what kept it afterwards at a distance is more likely to
have been refractoriness to change and extreme nationalism29. As for the Protestants, they may
also have been initially kept away by obvious doctrinal differences yet eventually they seemed
to have simply forgotten a key goal of mission to Ethiopia30, and ignored the socio-political scene
of their mission31. They were perhaps nave in assuming that they could be biblical but
29 Girma affirms that Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Ethiopian nationalism
have always been inseparably identified as two sides of the same coin
(Girma 2011, 11). Thus Protestants are viewed not only as heretics, but as
national betrayers (Girma 2011, 243).
30 This goal, as mentioned earlier and articulated by Thomas
Cochrane, was to revive the Abyssinian church (Fargher 1996, 74).
31 Girma attributes this omission to their high eschatological
consciousness and a missiological understanding that dichotomized
evangelism and social concern, giving primacy to the former (Girma 2011,

14
dogmatically unbiased in their attempt to rejuvenate the EOTC (Girma 2011, 236). Or did they
intentionally build their own churches, where they could control the new converts and
disciples, and then report back satisfactorily to their constituencies the progress of the
Gospel32?
Faced with these realities intrinsic to the historical encounter between the two churches,
there are some worthwhile lessons for todays Christian development workers. The story of the
EOTC warns us about the serious dangers of the church being intimately tied in with any one
government, nation, language, or people group. The Protestant missionaries to Ethiopia remind
us that renewal in the existent church is just as important as starting new churches, and that we
must persevere in achieving the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3) among members of the Body of
Christ.
To the second question (can the trajectories ever cross again?) the response is even more
speculative. Left to random chance, the trajectories are unlikely to cross again, like the chance of
two meteorites colliding hence the better question is, how can they cross again?
With regard to the Ethiopian setting of the early 21st century, the half-century that followed
the events described above has, in fact, led to a rapprochement between the two churches. On the
EOTC side, this may have to do with the loss of religious dominance of the EOTC in Ethiopia,
likely the result of both the Derg33 and the federalist regimes (Girma 2011, 228). On the
Protestant side, it may well have been the absence of missionaries (both during the Italian
occupation and the Derg regime) and the formation of an authentic Ethiopian evangelicalism that
brought the churches closer34. And on both sides, the curious phenomenon of Ethiopian

11).
32 See footnote 34.
33 The Derg (literally committee) denotes the Armed Forces Coordinating Committee, the name used for the violent Marxist regime which
held power in Ethiopia between 1974 -1991.
34 Refering to the Protestant movements, Emmanuel Gebre Selassie
stated: As long as we Ethiopian Evangelicals were among ourselves, we
were one. When the different missionaries with their different teachings
came back we were divided (Launhardt 2004, 116). Could this suprising
statement apply to unity across the Protestant-Orthodox divide?

15
Pentecostalism infiltrating all Ethiopian churches35, including the EOTC, is surely providing a
new common denominator. All this leads Girma to observe a missiological unfolding, with
both sides moving, at least subconsciously, towards the centre and towards an ecumenical
collaboration (Girma 2011, 244)36.
For Ethiopia as for global missions and development work, the answer may lie in
discovering (or rather uncovering) a common mission, sufficiently significant to overcome the
distracting forces of nationalism, conservatism, individualism, and other such isms. This leads
us to Boschs Alternative Community (the in-between people) as eloquently and expertly
brought to bear to the Ethiopian church dilema by Girma Girma (Girma 2011). This Alternative
Community, in his words, stands in between all human-made gaps as a force of healing,
reconciliation, an active participant in Gods redemptive act, whose ultimate expression is the
cross (Girma 2011, 8-9). In order for this community to fulfill its prophetic role, it must reject a
dualistic view of mission, the old evangelism social concern, faith deeds tension in favor
of a non-compartmentalized approach to mission that reaches out to the entirety of humanity
the spiritual and the physical (Girma 2011, 9).
Conclusion
The current inquiry into the pre-contemporary missiological history of Ethiopia has brought
to light essential and universal elements of mission: the true meaning of evangelism and
salvation, the tension between faith and state, the principles of cross-cultural missions, and the
continuous need for reform within the Church. The cause for the disunity between the Orthodox
and the Protestant churches in Ethiopia has been seen as inevitable, multi-factorial, and twosided but not necessarily permanent. The past struggles of the Ethiopian Church to find its
authentic identity carry rich lessons for us all, and the future offers great challenges /

35 Girma attributes this charismatization of Ethiopian Evangelicalism

to the suffering undergone and the authentic worship styles emerged during
the underground years of the Marxist period (Girma 2011, 227). This type of
shared experiences together, as opposed to individual shared experiences,
has remained a unique and powerful force for Ethiopian ecumenism. (Jeremy
Feller, personal communication)
36 This rapprochement has been particularly notable in the past
decade (Jeremy Feller, personal communication).

16
opportunities for the Ethiopian as for the global Church. For Girmas clarion call to the Ethiopian
church resonates truly globally:
The ongoing, urgent needs of Ethiopian Christianity involve a
renewed understanding of mission and evangelism, contextualization
that transcends cultural and ethnic walls, and reconciliation that leads to
working together for justice and for the liberation of the poor (Girma
2011, 244).
And this call, ultimately, reflects Christs call to us all:
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their
message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and
I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that
you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that
they may be one as we are oneI in them and you in meso that they
may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you
sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (Jn 17:20-23,
NIV).

Aknowledgments
I am indebted to several individuals who have advised me and assisted
me in finding rare sources for this essay: Dr. Paul Balisky, retired Professor of
Ethiopian Church History at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology in
Addis Abeba; Dr. Tim Teusink, lecturer at the Orthodox Seminary Holy Trinity,
Addis Abeba; and Jeremy Feller, pastor of Addis Christian Life Assembly,
Addis Abeba.

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Bibliography

Arn, Gustav. 1978. Evangelical pioneers in Ethiopia: origins of the Evangelical Church
Mekane Yesus. Stockholm: EFS-frl. / Addis Ababa: The Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus,
1978. Quoted in Girma, Bekele. 2011. The in-between people: a reading of David Bosc through
the lend of mission history and contemporary challenges in Ethiopia. Eugene, OR: Wipf &
Stock, Pitwick Publications.
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